This Scientific Opinion Paper reports about current plans of the European Commission to issue a delegated act on communication of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from construction products in form of “VOC classes”. German authorities consider this draft delegated act as completely insufficient regarding health requirements for the marketing of construction products and campaign for resumption of discussions and supplementation of the proposal in order to efficiently avoid unacceptable adverse health effects.

With reference to the federal Waste Prevention Programme (WPP), the Circular Economy Act stipulates that standards for waste prevention measures must be specified to record the progress made in decoupling the effects on people and the environment associated with waste generation from economic growth. The WPP identifies possible indicators, but it is unknown to which extent they can represent waste generation or effects of waste prevention measures. Possible evaluation criteria for the measurement of waste prevention success was analysed, their suitability were tested and a set of indicators was developed to enable a continuous measurement of the success of waste prevention measures.